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AMAZING PEAR FACTS AND HISTORY
Pear Orchards in California
 Seedlings of pear trees planted by the padres at San Juan Bautista Mission grounds are now, after more than 200 years, the oldest fruit trees in California - and remain in a fair state of vigor in spite of long neglect, producing large amounts of fruit yearly. Seeds of commercial pears were planted in the early mining days in the Sierra foothills, and a few Oriental pears were set out by the Chinese immigrants. Later, grafted trees were brought from Oregon, the eastern United States, and even South America and Europe. Pear trees are in the same class as apple trees, and both belong to the rose family.
The Oldest Pear Tree in Moraga
Brother Dennis Goodman wrote in 1977 that "since Moraga has so few historic buildings, it has been necessary to memorialize ancient trees planted by our antecedents." Amongst the trees declared by the Moraga Historical Society as "Heritage Trees" is a five-trunk WINTER PEAR TREE on the lawn of the Villa Moraga housing compound, at the comer of Saint Mary's and Moraga Roads, in front of the Commons. According to old records, it was planted probably at the turn of the century, before the Moraga Company planted the Bartlett pear orchards in 1913. Its fruit is reportedly brown-skinned and fairly hard.
The developers of Villa Moraga had this pear tree cut down, but happily shoots (called "suckers") emerged from the root and it presents us today with a tree with five trunks. However, the 5-foot diameter solid globe of its leaves and white blossoms on the multiple trunks presents a glorious sight in the Spring.
Pear Orchards in Moraga
 The majority of the pears in the Moraga Valley are Bartlett pear trees planted by the Moraga Company, of James Irvine, around 1913, and still going strong in spite of neglect. In May of 1929, the Manager of the Moraga Company, Mr. E.M. Price, wrote several letters to the University of California College of Agriculture and to the California Pear Growers Association, asking how long would their trees, by then about 16 years old, continue producing abundantly.
The responses, in file at our History Center, replied that pear trees are some of the hardiest and most long-lived of deciduous trees, and that there were at the time pear trees producing after 100 years. The writers indicate that "if managed properly should be better the second hundred years, than the first hundred."
By 1923, Bartlett pears shipped out of the Moraga Valley were sent either to the East Coast or to the Oakland Canneries and were reputed "as fine in quality as any found within the state." Be sure to check out the reproduction of one of the labels that we are displaying, with the words "MORAGA PEARS" over blue background, which were pasted on every can of pears from Moraga in the 1920's.
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